Swidhelm Bio

Wassial and welcome all. This is my wee corner of Renderosity here, so feel free to browse my gallery or even leave me obscene messeges in my inbox :P. Also for those interested my Predator 2, Alien, and the new Swidhelm's Hunter (Predator for Mike 4) can be found at sharecg.com I'm a hobbyist who for years has deigned and dabbled in Poser, Bryce, and eventually I got Wings 3d. I never used to be able to model worth beans, but have made some good progress over the years. Hopefully I'll be able to build a small business out of my art. I also write, though I don't post that here. Working on submissions to magazines and such. I compose digital music as well with sample libraries. Orchestral in nature usually. And for those who are wondering "what kind of a handle is Swidhelm?" it's an old Saxon name from around the eleventh century or so. Anyways, have a look about and hope you enjoy my gallery.
Also, for more of my art and music check out my Youtube channel, also Swidhelm.
Cheers, Swidhelm Darrin Smith

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Description

Well, first some news, for those that are interested. Managed to fix my computer--turns out it was the heat sink. One of the posts wasn't in properly, so it was sitting on a very slight angle. That was enough to raise the temp by about 40-50 degrees. It idled at about 68-75 celcius, climbing to over 105 often. Now it idles at about 25. Heh. Well, glad I finally figured it out. I thought it was the PSU, possibly even the cpu, or ram, etc.

Anyways, on to the good stuff. There are a couple things to keep in mind when looking at this image.

1. The flaring greaves near the ankles--that was done primarily for range of motion in the ankle. I haven't mapped or rigged the sabbatons yet, and when I do and get them in there, I can figure out how tight I can bring the ankles in. They won't flare quite so much. Or rather it will be a morph to adjust to taste.

2. The gauntlet are going to go through a bit of a rework. The hand itself will stay the same, but the gloves will cease just after the wrist, and the wrist lames of the gauntlet itself will wrap beneath the wrist. Also they won't climb so high up the arm. They will be articulated to bend up and down, but not side to side. The wrist will flare enough to allow the hand some movement from side to side though.

The knees (Polyns) and elbows (Couters) are set up as rigged lames, so posing will be a bit more tedious than just throwing mike in a pose. Once you get his pose down, you adjust the lames and elbows or knees to angle, and you are done. It's pretty easy. They only bend in one direction, but it is something to pay attention to when posing mike.

The faulds and tassets (the hip and hanging thigh armour)are set up in a similar fashion, just folding up along the x axis for fairly good range of motion.

One thing to keep in mind is, as in real life armour does hinder movements. The better the craftsmanship, the more refined the armour and articulated joints, the more movement you get, but movement is still not as free as it would be without the armour. Keep that in mind when posing mike as well, as the armour does have it's limitations. Extreme poses are not possible, both in poser and in real life. This suit has pretty good range though. Torso bending is pretty much out. He has to bend from the waist. The plakard (second lower piece of the cuirass or breast plate) is not an articulated one. We will see that in future armour, specifically gothic armour. But this is more stout, less freedom of movement, heavier Milanese plate.

Wow, I hope I'm not coming off like some irate nanny :P. A bit of a history lesson in there, but hopefully some info for those who are less versed in real plate and how it moves. I know, I'm a stickler for details in this kind of thing--which is also why I tear apart hollywood movies :P My woman hates it, heh.

Oh, the helm is new too. It's a close helm, or a late armet. The funny round thing on the back of it (the rondel) apparently has no known practical use, but I like the way it looks and its on many a real armet, close helm, and burgonet, so why not :P

Anyways, hope you enjoy so far. It is all mapped, though no textures yet.

Cheers
Darrin

Image Comments (17)

Iceshark39 ()
posted at 3:22AM Sat, 01 May 2010

This is coming together to be one fantastic looking suit of armor! It's the kind of sticking to details that are going to make this suit, likely, one of the best and most wanted around. Keep up the excellent work! Can't wait to see more!

Karth ()
posted at 3:22AM Sat, 01 May 2010

Stunning !

SWard80 ()
posted at 3:29AM Sat, 01 May 2010

This is looking better and better! Love your attention to detail on this armor set. The limitations on movement make sense to me, as that would be how real armor would move. This Milanese plate with the close helm is pretty much what I envision as the classic ideal of real armor. I'm looking forward to seeing further development on this project. As to your computer issues... YIKES! That's pretty hot! Glad you got it fixed!

blbarrett ()
posted at 3:39AM Sat, 01 May 2010

This looks Amazing Darrin! Thanks for all the info on the armor.... very interesting. This is on my mental wish list :)

Colosus ()
posted at 4:45AM Sat, 01 May 2010

That's just friggin awesome. I prefer armor that's practical like this, and the accuracy rocks.

RodolfoCiminelli ()
posted at 6:09AM Sat, 01 May 2010

Absolutely wonderful......!!!!

Carlazzo ()
posted at 6:49AM Sat, 01 May 2010

Fantastic work.

thecytron ()
posted at 9:28AM Sat, 01 May 2010

Xcellent presentation!

ubald ()
posted at 2:27PM Sat, 01 May 2010

You rock buddy! the character is looking very solid! as always its a real treat man CHEERs. PS you should try your hand at Halo:) you would do some Kickass stuff;)

alessimarco ()
posted at 3:00PM Sat, 01 May 2010

I love it!!! Excellent work!

scifibabe ()
posted at 5:04PM Sat, 01 May 2010

I'm glad you got your computer heating issues figured out! Really interesting info about the creation of this armor. Great job on it too. Looks great.

London224 ()
posted at 5:24PM Sat, 01 May 2010

So now you can sleep at night!!! Glad to hear. Looking forward to you finishing this. I really admire what you are doing here, the detail and what is going into this to make it work. Hope everyone out there has some idea just what it takes to do this.

Ascynd ()
posted at 7:48PM Sat, 01 May 2010

Well it looks awesome! Since pose range is limited you could include some loadable partial poses that stay within the limits, if so inclined. I certainly like what I see so far. =)

FALCON2 ()
posted at 5:13AM Sun, 02 May 2010

Wow - this looks simply outstanding! Very much looking forward to seeing this released!

When you push the round device on the back of the helmet, the eyes light up and an electronically recorded voice can be heard! It was all the rage back then! Awesome looking armor, probably one of the most realistic pieces I've seen in awhile.